News

Missouri Sues Web Site Purporting to Raise Funds

By TOM ZELLER Jr.

September 7, 2005

The Missouri attorney general, Jay Nixon, filed a lawsuit this afternoon against InternetDonations.org, the hub for a constellation of Web sites erected over the last several days purporting to collect donations for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Also named in the lawsuit, Mr. Nixon said, is the apparent operator of the donation sites, Frank Weltner, a St. Louis resident and radio talk show personality with ties to neo-Nazi organizations and the notorious Web site JewWatch.com.

That site, which indexes Adolf Hitler's writings, transcripts of anti-Semitic radio broadcasts, and other materials, drew wide headlines last year when it appeared at or near the top of Google search results for the query "Jew." It remains at No. 2 today.

The Missouri lawsuit seeks to freeze the assets of Internet Donations Inc., a nonprofit entity registered with the Missouri secretary of state's office by Mr. Weltner on Sept. 2, and to shut down the dozen or so Web sites with names like KatrinaFamilies.com, Katrina-Donations.com and NewOrleansCharities.com. Those sites appear to have been hastily registered and mounted since Hurricane Katrina devastated large swaths of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi last week.

The Web sites, which use similar imagery and slight variations on the same crude design, all point back to InternetDonations.org, which advises visitors interested in donating to the Red Cross, Salvation Army or other relief organizations, that "we can collect it for you in an easy one-stop location."

Most of the affiliated Web sites appear to have been registered using DomainsByProxy.com, a service that masks the identity of a domain name registrant. But Mr. Weltner's name appeared on public documents obtained through the Missouri secretary of state's Web site, indicating that he had incorporated Internet Donations as a nonprofit entity last Friday.

It is unclear whether any of the sites successfully drew money from any donors or if Mr. Weltner, who did not respond to repeated telephone calls and e-mails, had channeled any proceeds to the better-known charities named on his Web site.

"It's the lowest of the low when someone solicits funds" this way, Mr. Nixon said in an interview prior to announcing the lawsuit. "We don't want one more penny from well-meaning donors going through this hater."